On Tuesday 28^th January, Politics in Pubs met to discuss ‘Culture Wars and Gender Identity’.  We were delighted to welcome our speaker Steve James to introduce the topic.

Introduction

Steve has spent ten years working in the Royal Navy and twenty years in the fire service.  It was during his career as a fire-fighter when Steve noticed gender ideology creeping into the service:  policy changes enabled employees to identify as ‘any gender’ at work and expect the rights of their chosen sex.  He tried to raise the alarm with colleagues and friends about the danger of erasing biological reality, but many were not willing to hear it, and some became hostile.  Things came to a head with Steve’s employer when he objected to occupational Covid restrictions and was obliged to leave the service.

Find your voice

Liberated from an employer’s restrictions upon his freedom to speak out about his concerns, Steve felt empowered to launch a You Tube Channel called ‘Edge of the Matrix’.  He was becoming increasingly aware of the impact gender ideology was having on women’s sex-based rights and child safeguarding.  One day he heard someone ask Kelly Jay Keen what men could do about it – she replied, ‘find your voice’.  This inspired Steve to devise a campaign of street activism, using his voice to raise awareness of – and challenge – gender ideology.  Edge of the Matrix is used to publicise his encounters with the public and now has almost 70,000 subscribers.

Captured by gender ideology

Many institutions have allowed themselves to be captured by gender ideology and it has infiltrated their policies and procedures.  This means firstly, enabling a person to exhibit one or more ‘genders’  (the way they behave and present themselves) in an attempt to deny their biological sex; and secondly, prioritising gender over the reality of biological sex.  With gender ideology you are free to insist that your gender is more important than your sex and that everyone has to go along with it.  But when gender is prioritised over sex it corrupts the social contract we have with one another.  GI insists that a man who presents as female should be granted access to single-sex spaces and services designated for women, and that women should just accept it (even though it is unlawful).  In the world of gender ideology, men’s feelings are more important than facts.  Dissent among employees is stifled by the threat of being suspended or sacked.

Respectful debate

Inspired by Bill-Board Chris of Canada, Steve started his campaign by having some messages printed onto sandwich boards, such as “Gender ideology has no place in school” and ‘There’s no such thing as a trans child’.  He donned the boards and took to the streets – with the aim of confronting the lies erasing biological reality by engaging members of the public in respectful debate about gender ideology.   The resulting videos (more than 500 to date) are uploaded to Steve’s You Tube channel.  Not everyone appreciates what he is doing: up and down the country during his campaign, Steve has encountered a war on the truth, reality, the family, and freedom of speech.  He has been assaulted and threatened on several occasions.

What is behind gender ideology?

For some men it is an attempt to legitimise their sexual fetish about presenting themselves as the opposite sex.  For some women and girls, it is an attempt to escape womanhood – sometimes because of abuse or because of conditions like autism.  For many it is simply confusion about their sexuality – they are same-sex attracted but they believe – or have been groomed into believing – that rather than being gay, they must have been ‘born in the wrong body’.  A recent phenomenon is the clusters of teenage girls presenting with rapid onset gender dysphoria.  Big Pharma is cashing in on these vulnerable people with a range of medical interventions – the life of a trans-identifying child is worth up to $1.5 million dollars.  In the meantime, there are serious side-effects to some of the interventions.  Steve’s work also features some of the people who have survived gender ideology in his interviews with de-transitioners.

Discussion

Q1. You mentioned Big Pharma – does anyone else benefit from Gender Ideology?

A1. Some rich folk are funding GI to normalise their fetish behaviour.  Others want to disrupt society and free speech and control the agenda.  Some see a business development opportunity in techno pharma and the ‘transgender to transhuman’ journey.

Q2. Who gives you the most hostility during your street activism?

A2. Usually young Gen Z women.  I can often see them coming because they seem to have a similar dress code.  Some of the grandmas with a grandchild who identifies as trans can also be vicious – they know they are living a lie by affirming the child’s behaviour.

Q3. How do the police usually react?

A3. It varies.  Some try to stop me ‘offending’ people when they know there is no law against it.  The police are generally OK – the operational officers generally agree with me although they can’t be seen to be taking sides.  Their captured bosses would probably take issue with me.

Q4. What drives you to carry on despite the abuse?

A4. I want to live in a society where we are free to speak our minds.  I’ve never liked being told what to do – I’m naturally rebellious and I dislike witnessing the social engineering going on with GI.  I can see how brainwashed and targeted these people are and it causes untold damage.  That’s why I feature the stories of the de-transitioners – GI has ripped their families apart.

Q5. I disagree with virtually everything that has been said. My 20-year-old son has recently come out to me as being trans.  He sees himself as a woman and I’m glad that he’s been able to tell me.  I’m a scientist and I’ve been reading up on the topic and none of what I’ve read tallies with what has been said here. From what I’ve read it’s not scientifically true that humans are either male or female – some are intersex.  They are a minority, but they do exist. What about the people like my son who are born male or female, but who genuinely believe they are transgender?  They are people and should be treated with respect.

A5. The reality is that people are born either male or female.  You can have surgery and medication, but you can’t change sex.  A considerable proportion of those who identify as transgender also have other conditions, such as autism.  And they often confused about their sexuality and eventually realise that they are simply same sex attracted. The term intersex is used by supporters of gender ideology to describe people born with a disorder of sexual development, about 0.02% of all births.  There are several types of these disorders but in every case the individual is either male or female.

Q6. When you are on the street do people stick to the matter of GI or do they raise other topics?

A6. There is often a pattern of beliefs – including a blind faith in GI, the climate emergency, and mass immigration. Belief is the enemy of knowing.

Q7. Are you aware that for the puberty blocker trial at Kings College, experts have endorsed six-monthly injections instead or three-monthly or monthly?  The trial involves children aged 10-16 years.  Why would you give developing children a very large injection twice a year instead of lessening the impact with much smaller doses?  The trial also refers to giving the children access to contraception when they are under the age of consent.

A7. It’s shocking.  In spite of incomplete record-keeping at the Tavistock GIDS clinic, we know that at least 2000 children were given puberty blockers.

Q8. It must be very hard for parents when their son or daughter identifies as trans.  The children often turn out to be gay and/or autistic.

Q9. Yes, it can tear a family apart.

Q10. Science is not conducted in a vacuum.  But if science is infected by an ideology, that’s problematic.

Q11. An appeal to emotion is a flaw in one’s logic.

Q12. How often do you change people’s minds?

A.12 Rarely.  But I respectfully try and make them think about key questions like: what does it mean to be trans?  What does it mean to ‘feel’ like you are a woman?  What is gender?

Politics in Pubs would like to thank Steve for telling us about his courageous campaign.  To find out more, please see edge of the matrix on You Tube.  

We would also like to thank our hosts at The Welcome Inn.  Cheers all!

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